Parrot Cichlid Question

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I bought this little guy at walmart today....he was in a tank of other same-size parrots, all were bright orange. He is gray and ...

I bought this little guy at walmart today....he was in a tank of other same-size parrots, all were bright orange. He is gray and silver spotted....not the striped brown/tan you usually see in juvenile blood parrots. It seems weird that all the others in the tank were bright orange and he wasn't, when they were the same size and came in the same shipment. I had to take him home for some unknown reason, he just spoke to me, heh.

Anyhow, his colouration is confusing me. I have 7 other parrots in my 120g...5 were purchased at Walmart at the same age/size as this one and all were bright orange and still are. Two were purchased from a LFS and are a deeper coral red and one is whitish yellow (not dyed).

I've named him Gandalf.

Any idea what colouration he will have when he is older? Will he turn orange, a late bloomer perhaps?

Was funny, I told the guy I wanted the "gray one" and he said "why do you want the ugliest one in the tank??"

I told him I have a fondness for ugly fish, but I think this guy is adorable. He looks tiny in the 120 next to my older parrots.

There's still a lot of mystery around this fish. Despite them being pretty popular in the aquarium hobby for some years now there's still no consensus on what species are used to create the hybrid. It is known that a great deal of these fish (even the "regular" orange/red ones) are dyed. I know that Wal-Mart sells dyed ones in all sorts of different colors from red to orange and yellow and blue and purple. However, the "green" ones are always sort of barely green and very splotchy looking like your fish. I think maybe the green dye just doesn't work quite as well as the others (actually sometimes the purple ones look pretty bad, too). So, I suspect that either he's just one that managed to not get dyed at all or that he's a green one with a faded or botched dye job.

For what it's worth, my wal-mart never gets any other kind of dyed fish, not even the fruit salad tetras that are common in other wal-marts. We seem to have a very different stock than most people mention their wal-marts having..not sure if its because we are in North Dakota and a small city at that, or what.

I doubt the orange parrots are dyed because my neighboring business has a huge tank of them (they got all of them at walmart) that are nearly full grown, and all are very solid, bright pretty orange yet. I've never seen a dyed parrot retain its colours that long and that evenly. Mine are the same way, although they are younger.

Also, the LFS has dyed parrots that were dyed colours when they were the size of this little guy (he's pretty darn tiny) and the colouration was very nice, except as you said, the green ones. For some reason they were awfully pale and weird. Now, about 4 months later, nearly all of them are very muted versions of their original dye job. They don't look anything like this weirdo.

Despite the picture, he has no green or other colours in him at all. Very much gray, charcoal and white. If he was a fading or botched dye job, I would think he would retain some of that dye yet seeing how little he is.

Soo...I'm thinking no, not dyed. Just weird. As you said though, little is known about this fish and as with any crosses, there are variations. I have a white/yellow one that looks very much like a gold severum, even has a less pronounced bump and has blue eyes, yet is still obviously a parrotfish...you just see a lot more severum in him than red devil.

I guess he shall grow and we shall see! I really am hoping he retains these pretty grays. (is pretty gray an oxymoron? haha)

I doubt the orange parrots are dyed because my neighboring business has a huge tank of them (they got all of them at walmart) that are nearly full grown, and all are very solid, bright pretty orange yet. I've never seen a dyed parrot retain its colours that long and that evenly. Mine are the same way, although they are younger.

The orange adults are a reflection of the hybrid's adult coloration but young fish won't be as vibrant looking. They dye the young fish the same color as their eventual adult coloration because colorful fish are more appealing than dull looking ones. So the dye fades but the real orange adult coloration starts to come in so the fish appears to stay the same color.

I guess the verdict is that this guy is undyed and is just an interesting color. It will be interesting to see what it looks like when it gets older!

The orange adults are a reflection of the hybrid's adult coloration but young fish won't be as vibrant looking. They dye the young fish the same color as their eventual adult coloration because colorful fish are more appealing than dull looking ones. So the dye fades but the real orange adult coloration starts to come in so the fish appears to stay the same color.

I guess the verdict is that this guy is undyed and is just an interesting color. It will be interesting to see what it looks like when it gets older!

Oh I get what you are saying now...makes sense. Maybe he just got overlooked and lucky and is a natural coloured baby. Guess we shall see...here's hoping he stays gandalf the gray. Gandalf the orange just doesn't have the sam ring to it, ya know? LolPosted via Mobile Device

Well today my roommate went to the city and got me the parrot I've been wanting for ages. He wasn't for sale for the longest time, then when he was I kept missing out on getting there before they closed. He's been these colours since he was a juvenile so it's not the black stress spots you see on parrots sometimes but his permanent colouring. I kind of wonder if Gandalf won't look like this....his darker spots are actually very similar in pattern to this guy, which is interesting.